Civil service tangled up in ANC web of patronage

AMOVE by the ANC to aggressively collect what amounts to a tithe from senior civil servants is an affront to the “separation of powers” principle and could undermine the independence of the public service. ANC leaders have strongly defended their latest fundraising move, saying they were encouraging only those directors-general, heads of provincial departments and other senior civil servants who happen to be ANC members to contribute. Non-members, the ANC said, were not obliged to pay monthly levies to the party.

However, the ANC’s defence of this decision misses some crucial points that may lead to the constitutionally guaranteed independence of the civil service being compromised.

Already, there is much public controversy over the party’s “cadre deployment” policy, which requires that key positions in the government be held by ANC members.

With this new fundraising policy, directors-general and other civil servants — who are required in terms of the public service code of conduct to be impartial and nonpartisan — will feel pressured to demonstrate their loyalty to the party.

As constitutional law expert Professor Shadrack Gutto warned, the move will “create a special category of citizens who will be coerced to pay”.

There is genuine fear among some senior public servants — some of whom are sympathetic to the party — that a refusal to pay the levy may be a career-limiting move.

As a result, even fewer individuals will find the public service an attractive place of employment.

This cannot be good news for a civil service that is crying out for skilled executives and senior managers.

In its bid to raise funds and keep its extremely expensive electoral machinery operational, the ANC is once again conflating its role with that of the state.

Like any organisation or individual in society, the ANC has every right to raise funds. But the manner in which it is going about it in this case is wrong.

The fact that the deductions are paid into an account belonging to the Progressive Citizens’ Forum — a controversial ANC vehicle for collecting funds by promising access to government and party decisionmakers — suggests that civil servants are being drawn into the ANC’s sophisticated network of patronage.

No amount of spinning from Luthuli House hides the fact that the demand for funds by the party compromises the civil service and opens it to accusations that it is nothing more than an extension of the ANC.